Consumer Confidence Rises Slightly
Consumer confidence across the United States rebounded this month amid an improved economic outlook and just ahead of the holiday shopping season, according to the monthly survey by the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters.
The survey’s index of consumer sentiment yielded a reading of 75.1, a jump from a reading of 73.2 in October and above the expectations of analysts polled by Yahoo Finance. However, the reading is down from 82.7 in November 2012 (The base score of 100 was established in 1966).
But officials associated with the survey said the gains were due largely to improvements for the wealthiest Americans.
The survey said the gains from October were primarily concentrated in upper-income households, with increases in household income reflected in more optimistic assessments of personal finances. Meanwhile, the lowest-income households reported declines in their incomes as well as decreases in their net worth.
“The term that best fits the outlook of consumers is stagnation,” said Richard Curtin, the survey’s chief economist. “Consumers’ overall assessment of economic prospects is not bad and not good. Economic stagnation is like purgatory, it is neither heaven nor hell.”
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